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Topic: ATP 1000 Paris Masters (Read 4645 times)

The BNP Paribas Masters is the ninth and final ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event. As the final tournament of the regular menís tennis season, the Palais Omnisports in Bercy showcases the cream of the crop as they vie to win the prestigious title and clinch one of the remaining qualifying spots in the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.

Novak Djokovic leads a star-studded line-up at the BNP Paribas Masters as he bids to win his fourth ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament of the season. The Serb was champion in Paris in 2009, defeating Gael Monfils.

US Open champion Andy Murray looks to keep up his streak of winning at least one ATP World Tour Masters 1000 trophy every year since 2008. He has eight titles in total.

Two spots remain at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. With the BNP Paribas Masters offering a maximum of 1,000 ranking points, the contenders will hope for strong showings to clinch their place.

Reigning champion and current world No.1 Roger Federer announced on Sunday night that he would not be playing at the 2012 BNP Paribas Masters."It's just too much," he said after losing a three-set final at the Swiss Indoors in his home town of Basle to Juan Martin del Potro. "I was trying to make up my mind and I had some niggles I didn't want to take a chance on. I feel very disappointed as I had one of the best weeks of my life there last year, but this is just a last-minute decision."With the draw for the BNP Paribas Masters having already been made, the seeds cannot be reallocated. Victor Hanescu will take Federer's place as a lucky loser (the highest-ranked loser of the last round of qualifiers) and also benefit from Novak Djokovic's first-round bye. The Romanian will thus face the winner of Monday night's main match between Gilles Simon and Marcos Baghdatis.Federer's decision also means that Novak Djokovic is guaranteed to take over the No.1 spot in the rankings and hold it until the end of the year.